One in 10 people responsible for workplace training don't know if their staff are trained in online security

One in 10 (9%) people responsible for workplace training don’t know if their staff receive any anti-cybercrime guidance.

This means, according to new research from accelerated training provider, Firebrand Training, half a million businesses (495,000) could be leaving their organisations vulnerable to malware and ransomware attacks, with no idea how to protect themselves and minimise risks.

Malware and ransomware attacks, similar to the recent NHS attack which affected 200,000 public sector systems, capitalise on lack of staff training, luring people to click on virus-loaded links or attachments.

The new research also revealed UK businesses are more likely to carry out routine fire drills twice as often as all-staff cyber drills, despite cyber breaches being 125 times more frequent than office fires. An average of 22,000 fires occurred in non-domestic settings in the UK, a modest figure when compared to the 2,750,000 British businesses that are suspected to have suffered cyber attacks.

Robert Chapman, co-founder of Firebrand said: “In some ways we were surprised by the proactivity of businesses in terms of prevention, but we were also surprised that 20 per cent of businesses only complete cyber drills once a year. Cyber crime is constantly evolving. If you’re testing your systems once a year, and patching up breaches with new safeguards, but then leaving this for another 12 months you’re incredibly vulnerable, as we’ve seen with the NHS attacks. It’s like expecting cling-film to be an effective material for dam building.”